Sammy Ameobi And Anita Start Against Swansea

Alan Pardew has made three changes to the Newcastle United line-up for Saturday’s Premier League fixture against Swansea City at St. James’ Park, and the Senegal FA and FIFA have prevented Papiss Cisse from starting the game because he did not travel to play for Senegal against Niger in mid-week.

Not actually too disappointed in Cisse missing out, he’s been in a rut for a couple of weeks now since his goal against Bordeaux. He needs something to jolt him and hopefully this is it, an opportunity next week against a woeful Southampton defence to prove a point to his country and his club for backing him.

Sammy is often up front with the reserves. This is definitely too close to call. Could be 3-0 us, 3-0 them, or 3-3, with Swansea playing always expect goals, we can break them down easily at the back, they’re not fast and their wingbacks are awful.

FYI
i use this site to get links for all nufc games when they are not on the boxhttp://www.wiziwig.tv just got to live sports and then choose english premier league….youll find a list of links to nufc games….best ones are the sopcast links (need to download sopcast)

I like the idea of Sammy in the free slightly withdrawn role, with crazy legs you always get the feeling he might do the unexpected and HBA is learning the right mid slot well. Worried about Dyer though.

@jonny
A poor team. It’s only 3 players short of what wud probably be AP’s 1st choice 11.
Sammy gets the nod as does Fergie. Wud have much rather had Marveaux in the team today and a starting place RM for Amalifatano
Sammy is just like his big brother. Does not know what he’s doing and dont rate Fergie.
Hopefully HBA is playing as 2nd striker today.

I feel more comfortable going toe-to-toe like this, instead of trying in vein to control and contain the opposition. Simply allow our players to express themselves and show they’re better than most, particularly at home. Maybe some tinkering is necessary in tricky away fixtures.

Not half as bad as some fans would suggest. HBA has been looking very threatening and is definitely trying hard to get on the scoresheet. Fergie is perhaps not strong enough to play LW but given half a yard of space he can whip a belter so I say stick with him. Santon is looking very confident and going forward is a threat but on the counter attack we look suspect and I do think if we don’t get back quicker we could be caught out. Willo lost his concentration and nearly let them in but aside from that I don’t think he has been terrible.

Quasi
Cheers mate i think the link im on must be sponsered by swansea fm cos all there saying is basically fergie and willo are shite and tbh they havent really spoke about much else except benny just wish i had a link with a decent picture this is like watching a bluery photo slideshow!

Steven Taylor clearing up after mistakes from Williamson. Also Anita has been good chasing down players when we have lost it, to ensure they don’t catch us on the break. Sure he needs to work on other aspects like controlling the ball at his feet. Sammy is a bit goofy over the ball much like his older brother. After seeing the last two games without Gutierez I wonder where all his haters are now, he’s an obvious asset

Quasi
Cheers fella will try it after half time like
Still hoping for a 3-0 though! Kinda hoping that marv comes on in the second would think he has a little more to offer than sammy/fergie otherwise u kinda wonder why we bothered getting him in

Classic doom mongers out in force. Thought we’ve played well, moved the ball quickly. Just need to find a cutting edge. Look vulnerable on the counter attack would be the main negative, and not sure what Sammy is offering.

from what i see our team just doesn’t have any decent formation 4-2-3-1 is almost as bad as 4-4-2 the problem lies in how weak are midfield is with goals and assist what we need is in january we shound buy a nolan or lampard type CM that way so much more space will be made.
ATM HBA is only able to score by taking players on ba is the only real threat from strikes while cabaye can only really play un and down the middle so that
it might be good having players who are master with one type of skill but you need players who cand do a mixture which sadly we don’t have ATM.

Lordjoe
Aye theres defo a jonas shaped hole on the left!!
Glad anitas playing well looks like he’s starting to find his pace in the league and his confidence is growing, starting to see the player we knew he would be!

And the reason we are getting hit on the break alot means we are attacking alot which is what the legion of doom want.

Ben Arfa wasted a few opportunities to begin with and was ball greedy in my opinion but after about 25 mins hes been amazing, people complaining thats he’s the only falir player but we have given him loads of opportunites, isnt that what are team should be doing, giving the best player in the team the opportunites

Things are looking just like they’ve done all season. We are creating some chances, but we can’t take them. What worries me the most today is the defensive play. Williamson is no Premier League player. Both his positioning and passing is way to poor. He looks terrified when he plays, reminds me of David Rozenhal when he played for us.

well this second half has got to change the way people see sammy because what i think made it difficult is pardew played him in the wrong position just like it has with cabaye
i phoned macdonald up on wednesday and he said the problem for cabaye has been jonas is not playing agressive on the wing he plays more like a CDM forcing cabaye out wide rather than his prefered CM.

That’s it. we are officially going for a relegation scrap. Pardew needs to go and the squad needs to be revamped from top to bottom. May I suggest that we make a small investment for Benedikt Howedes, Joao Mountinho and Edin Dzeko for starters?

If we continue to play like this and nothing happens in 2012, i can’t find other arguments to keep Pardew other than it would cost us a lot of money to sack him. What he’s done with the player material he has is very disappointing!! Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse. They should terrorize defences, at least and play for their manager. They are not doing that now.

all thes calling for pardews head do you want kinear back?
i can’t think of any other manager decent enough to build a team who will accept the purple rule of our owners
lets face it last season we had a settled starting 11 but remember in december when them injuries came we started getting mixed up and we went on a loosing streak but that change after cisse came in and also injuries stop so we were settled again
this year i probably could see this coming when an owner does not allow large squad.

…this is just going to be 20 min of Benny roaming freely around undtil Pardew brings on Obertan and then Benny usually goes missing. All along we will be hoofing it because we don’t how else to utilize Ameobi

We need to be patient. Rome was not built in a day. When we have our best players back eg Jonas and Colo, we will steadily climb up the league. I have not given up on 6th spot, nor have I given up on Pardew. Lets see where we are in 8 years.

All those calling for Pardew to be sacked are crazy. He was manager of the year and got us 5th. We have the same team. How can we get relegated. 5th to relegation in one year. impossible even by the Toon’s standards.

Have to say all the lads this half seem to have forgotten the concept of an early ball they hold the ball way to long and the opportunity to play someone in has gone benny has been very guilty of this in the second half!
Unlucky shola

Oh did he? I turned off my stream. I checked Soccernet’s update, tried to figure something out, and figured that Pards is just throwing dices now. Trying out Anita and Marv on the left, Santon and Hatem on the right to see if he’ll hit jackpot.

What has happened to our beloved club? We’re back to being a mid-table team after all of last season. Btw, when people say we need strengthening, I must ask…. Why on earth would any of them players want to come to a club that can’t beat teams like:
Reading
West Ham
Swansea
Aston Villa?

There you go TADS go onnnnnn patronise us doom and gloomers now. We’re just doing great aren’t we, Newcastle are such a potent force. All us doom and gloomers dont know what we are talking about do we,our eyes are just fooling us… everything is just Rosey here at St James Park.

Well, when there are so many players that doesn’t play up to their best, Pardew is to blame. It’s his job to get the best out of the players. How he does it is irrelevant. I don’t want his head now, but i can’t see him evolve as manager i’m afraid. I’d love to be proved wrong though!

Oh dear. We have lost our steel our fight our resolve. what we predicted given we lost carroll barton nolan our pumped aggressive players, particularly our leader in nolan. we have lost experience, no wise heads on the field to pull the team together. our team has the mentality of a promising youth team. great when up, terrible when down.

When have i EVER said Sack the manager TADS? Go on quote me. If you can find ONE single quote from me saying sack Pardew, copy and post it here and I will donate £1000 pounds to the charity of your choice. I’m waiting…

Dont want to be a negative but we look more like relegation than top 7.
2 ‘easy’ games at home and we have lost them both without scoring and only havin 2/3good chances. 12 games in and we dont look like a top 10team. I have never heard of a manager who uses the same formation and tactics 12games in a row without playing well once. If he doesnt change the formation soon i can see us been in a relegation fight by christmas. AP keeps coming up with excuses (and will again today) but tbh there isnt one. If AP doesnt change soon he shud be fired and i wudnt be sad. Look at every team he has managed, he has awful 2nd/3rd seasons.
We think teams think we are hard to play against but they dont. All fans see us as easy points (this season).

I’m ready for u guys to complaing about this post but there are plenty of reasons to be annoyed, i will stay loyal to nufc like most of u but being loyal doesnt mean accepting this sh1t.

Very disappointed with that result. Turned off after the second goal – glad I’m not in Toon to be there. Controlled the game for the most part, made some excellent chances but nothing fell for us – full credit to their keeper mind, he had a belting game but we didn’t challenge him anywhere near as much as I’d have liked.

Silly mistakes cost us yet another 3 points. Pardew really needs to give the lads a kick up the backside and remind them that they’re paid to win games.

@Transfer Sage
Completely agree with you, I do partly blame Pardew but our players haven’t shown much, it’s either Collo clearing the mess up, Ben Arfa with all our flair, or Santon making great runs. I’m not saying players like Tiote offer nothing but the synergy isn’t there, to me at least, I see no synergy between the frontline, the backline, and the midfield, well I do, Ben Arfa transitions midfield to frontline, and Santon Defence to attack, but our other players don’t offer much in that respect.

What we’re doing now just isn’t working I feel, and it’s very frustrating to watch, I really do hope we can turn this around soon.

Let this be a message to Ashley, we need defensive cover because without either Colo or Taylor we are letting goals in. When was out last clean sheet? I think the desperation for us to attack and find a goal left our defenders to show how ‘skilled’ they really are. Terrible

Also: Ben Arfa had a cracking game. Sorely missed Cabaye, though. As decent a game as Anita had, I think he’s still learning about the pace of the EPL. Looking forward to seeing more of the lad, though.

I have been quiet on this for a long time now, but I am fed up with our team… Not for losing, but for simply being up for it again and again and again. Its like to many of them believe all the hype they got last season and thought they would walk it, and they still havnt realized that they have to work hard which was the reason we finished above more talented teams in the league last season…. Not only work hard on the pitch but in training as well, now I know that I cannot say for sure whether or not they do that since I aint there, but I CAN say that it certainly dosnt look like it since we look clueless at times both defensive but even more so offensive.

This is not Newcastle, it’s what we all feared when Pardew was appointed manager. Except he had to f*****g wait until he got an eight year contract!!!! DISGRACEFUL!!!!!!!!! Not even gonna bother with next week. Relegation again by the looks of it!!! :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Some on hear need to wind their necks in.
All clubs/players will have a slump in form – fact.
The big thing is though that alot think we should be thumping teams like west ham, Swansea etc…….
Reality is we are not that great and these jumped up lot just have huge expectations.
We have no right to just turn up and get a win. Swansea are a decent side and just because there is a belief NUFC are a bigger club then we will win is unbelievable.
Give yourselves a reality check. Last season was luck but only 12 leagues game in so plenty of games left to get a top half finish.

Lack of investment, lack of ambition from the board. We are not even as good as a mid table club. Europa in ONE big excuse for playing bad. Sorry Pards, you have lost it. I backed Pards last week but after todays performance i am starting to wonder. 8 year deal……my god.

I know we’re all in love with Ben Arfa, and we can’t doubt that he worked hard and was creative, but at times he takes the greedy option instead of playing in a team mate and that is not good enough as far as I am concerned.

Yes at times he is forced to try it himself because he has few other options but at other times he just wants to do it himself for personal glory.

I’m not saying sell him because that’s crazy but he isn’t as much of a team player as we need him to be.

ibiza: spot on. We take our chances and Krul doesn’t fluff his clearance and we’re talking about how well the lads played. We won’t emulate last season, we’re not there yet. Look at Everton, they haven’t been consistently in the top six, yet everybody looks to them as some sort of model. Patience.

Well we arent talking about how well the lads played, we are talking about another home defeat to a team supposedly worse than ours… I am not calling for AP’s head, what we need most of all is stabillity but allot of our players need to wake tf up

Fed up of people sticking up for Mike Williamson. May not have been to blame today but he has at least one moment of madness a game. Not good enough for NUFC. ANyone who thinks he is, needs to get their head checked. Time for investment Ashley.

I’ll stand by my criticism of Willo. He’s usually a lot better, the whole team is usually better. I’m angry but we’ll move on and form will be sure to find us again. We as fans should try not to get as desperate for a win as the players, because it leaves gaps in our defence

Rotonda….If you listened to what us “apologists” were actually saying, you may realise it’s an “excuse” that wont change each week.

One bad result or even a few doesn’t change what we believe is the plan in motion.

Granted it’s not too entertaining to watch at the minute, but it wont happen overnight, in a month or in a season.

You either believe we are building or you don’t. If you do, you also have to have patience, sometimes a lot of it.

It can be a problem, as you almost have to give Pardew free licence for a while, but to be completely honest, I’m not sure what the better alternative is? Sacking managers when they stopped performing or the fans turned on them got us sweet f.a.

I’m all up for discussing what needs improving, but how and why would you expect anyone to hold a proper discussion with some of the people on here given what utter tripe is written?

Fo a.lot of pepole it does dominate our lives and the more discerning can see it’s pathetic at the moment, because the manager is so stubborn and has completely run out of ideas if he ever a plan B in the first place.

Our main problem (IMO) is not getting Tiote and Cabaye on the pitch together, with them two we could get away with playing 442 because they usually dominated midfield. Thus, our main problem is a lack of squad depth. No doubt about this. Clearly has to be rectified but what good does “Pardew Out” do? We had so many chances today and we didn’t take them. Is that Pardew’s fault?

Bionic
Really not sure why youve started this arguement
I know ppl have been calling for his head but today we were playing well, they countered, tayls broke up the play, timmy fcuked up the clearence (still dont see how thats patronising especiallu to you as you havent said you want pards out) and all of a sudden all the posts pop up pards out etc yawn
We were in the game until there goal and playing some good football and changing manager now makes no sense

Poor team display. I don’t often post because of the Pardew haters and lovers normally rant and rave all day but the players are not performing as a team. Last Season although we won matches i can’t say we controlled games or dominated teams. Last year we essentially made very few chances in games but through a solid defence and a taking of those chances we won games.

We simply do not create enough chances, im sure you lads will bicker on into the night as to why that is…

Krul is a fantastic shot stopper but his kicking hasnt been good for a large number of games this season.

Hoping for better from the boys and Pardew next game and abit of quality signed in January.

colwell
well does that not prove we are not a top 6 side and it was luck that got us there last year?
team in the top 6 pass well, create chances everywhere, have midfielders who can score in a varity of ways, and don’t have to use wonder goals to win games.
newcastle on the other hand have non of these most of the goal we score are wonder goals HBA just doesn’t seem to create much for others he doesn’t pass much and not one midfielder can score goals in a mixture of ways.

– Beny behind a single striker.
– A true LB.
– MArv or Ferg on the left. Obi on the right.
– Colo and Cabaye Back ( and Cab improving).
– To stop shooting wild at 25 meters in a greedy fashion.
– No more Hoofball.
– No more crosses before we pass over the defensive line.
– More quick pass ( and more sharp if possible).

To change our play in that way, we will need time. pard mistake last year was to think only about short term.

After Chelsea tear us apart 0-3 in St James, he clearly renounced to any kind of ambition concerning our play.

He choosed us to go the easy way. Hoofball. Less risky and less complicated.

Now, we see the limits of it.

No imagination, only air play or individuals actions. Our passing is worst and worst game after game.

So please Mister Pardew, time to work on that and to bring us a real play, even if it cost us a few games, could not be worst of what it is now.

If Pard can do that by himself, he could maybe bring an offensive advisor into the staff.

I wastnt trying to start an argument. Just defending the frustrations of those who are calling for Pards head. you saying: “Wow
Are people actually blaming pardew cos timmy fluffed his clearence??” Seemed very patronising, but I concede I fired the first shot across the bow in calling you ‘toon tinted glasses’ so in my frustration I apologise for that…

breno
u wind ya neck in last season was no fluke we were a good team we r struggling this season due to lack of investment in the transfer window / lack of ambition by ashley. we have stood still and went stale whilst most clubs have built. i havent posted on here for ages due to gonks happy with ashleys mediocrity masterplan slating fans who want better for the club they love calling them neggers. barring fergie our youngsters arent ready for prem and 442 doesnt work. we did well to hold onto our blue chips in the summer but theyll b gone in winter so it wont matter nufc are a massive club we fans spend fortunes on season tickets and merchandise and i think we should expect our club to be turning over teams like swansea. today and the season so far have been piss poor i live in hope we turn it around but cant see it.

You know what…it’s not often I comment on here, but after reading some of the drivel I just did, I couldn’t stop myself. It just goes to show just how fickle some of our fans are…the same people who had Pardew on a pedestal last season are now calling for his head. Yes…there isn’t any excuse for the way we’re playing, to be honest, I think we’re playing terribly..have all season, however…the fact is Pardew himself said we ended up where we were last season 3 years ahead of schedule…we aren’t going to be a consistant top 5 team…quite simply…there’s too much money being spent by the “big teams” for us to compete without major investment. Pardew isn’t a fantastic manager, and he isn’t a terrible manager…he gets things wrong…yes, but even Fergie gets it wrong sometimes. Why don’t you fickle f**kers call for Pardews head at the end of the season if we get relegated…because I can guarantee if we start playing well again, and winning games…the people on this blog who are currently wanting him sacked and moaning about him will act like they never said anything and will start claiming he’s the best manager since Sir Bobby all over again. You know what…we get called the greatest fans in the world sometimes…if only people could see just how fickle some of our fans are we’d lose that title. Win or lose…we’re Geordies…we supported OUR team when we were relegated…but now we’ve had a little taste of glory, some people expect that we should be doing it season in/season out. It’s not going to happen…quite simply if you want to be a fickle NUFC fan, and complain about EVERYTHING…then do us all a favour, and start supporting Sunderland…because quite honestly…I think I speak for a lot of people when I say…you don’t deserve to be known as a supporter of Newcastle United. Rant over

Bionic
Fair enough mate soz for the retaliation
Dont get me wrong by no means am i saying were playing great football and we should be skipping round holding hands with flowers in our hair singing pardew is the lord, theres clearly something wrong with the team this season we seem devoid of any passion or fight but i just dont see how sacking the manager would be beneficial to us atm but also understand that no manager is untouchable regardless of contract length!

I always support the team, I think you’ll find my bank statement proves that beyond doubt. I will always support NUFC but I’m sorry if we are playing bad I WILL moan about it, I’m entitled to moan and as a hardcore fan and I WILL. That makes me no less a supporter then the people who will never say a bad thing about the team.
Please GeordieAnt do not go around throwing Sunderland insults to us. Our frustrations are born out of passion, not fickleness.

I do think sacking pardew would be crazy and just add more fuel to the ‘soap opera’ tag we’ve had since the days of Keegan.

I just dont know what he should do as I dont know enough about football to comment . There should be some sort of meeting where ALL the team members coaches included should sit around the table, talk, study past performances and come up with a serious game plan, then take it to the players. Its a start I suppose.

Bionic
Couldnt hurt like
We seemed to have lost that grit and fight we had last season and the boys just havent turned up this season hopefully we can bag 3 points next week try and get the confidence going again

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United, when their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Fantasy League

Mark Harding has again set up the Fantasy League for our readers for this season.

The new code is 3641-1656 and people can set up the league here:

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

====================

Health Update - 4 Feb, 2015

I had another battery of medical tests early last week, and the results show my PSA count as undetectable, which means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of cancer in the body.

I'm very pleased about that!

Ed Harrison

=========================

What Is A Football Club?

“What is a club in any case?"

“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes."

“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city."

“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”